biden has brokered 11th-hour deals with the republican leader in the past. mcconnell's appeal came just hours after the president appeared on "meet the press" and called out republican leaders by name. >> congress has not been able to get this stuff done, not because democrats in congress don't want to go ahead and cooperate, but because i think it's been very hard for speaker boehner and republican leader mcconnell to accept the fact that taxes on the wealthiest americans should go up a little bit as part of an overall deficit reduction package. >> nbc's capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell is live on capitol hill. kelly o., i'm looking at the clock, we are now 14 hours and 58 minutes from going over the fiscal cliff. let's outline -- >> reporter: but who's counting, right, chris? >> yeah, who's counting? let's go over for people, what remains unresolved? it seems like two weeks ago they were pretty well set on the basic parameters of this thing, so let's talk about what's left to deal on? >> reporter: well, there are some significant differences, but